


The Tales You Told Me

by dragons_and_angels



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bedtime Stories, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-18 11:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19333504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragons_and_angels/pseuds/dragons_and_angels
Summary: Albus tells his favourite niece a bedtime story.





	The Tales You Told Me

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to R for the beta help but any mistakes are my own! I love any chance to write more Next Gen, though it was a struggle to stay under 1000 words.

"Uncle Al, Uncle Al, can I have a story?" Marie Potter, a girl of bright red hair despite having no Weasley blood, and a smile which could melt stone looked up at her favourite uncle (her only uncle if you were being pedantic). She was dressed in the yellow and blue pyjamas Albus had given her and he wasn't biased to say that she was cutest thing he had ever seen.

"Of course." He flopped down on the bed beside her, making her giggle. "Do you want me to read one or do you want me to make one up?"

"Make one up!" Marie said immediately and Albus inwardly cursed.

"Okay then. Once upon a time," he said because that was always a good start and it gave him a chance to think of what he was going to say, "there were two Princes." Okay, he knew where this could go. "No, sorry, one Prince and one Jester who thought he was a Prince."

"How can you think you're a Prince?" Marie asked, her brows drawn in confusion.

"He thought he was the smartest, bravest person in the land and Princes were brave and smart," Albus answered and Marie nodded like this made perfect sense. Merlin, he loved five-year-olds. "Anyway, this jester met the Prince of the land and thought he was the prettiest person he had ever seen. The jester didn't stop going on and on about the Prince to his poor brother who couldn't do anything but stuff wool in his ears and hope the jester would lose his voice."

"Did they fall in love?" Marie asked, her brown eyes shining.

"The jester did. Every time he met the Prince, he would have stars in his eyes and would talk his brother's ear off. The Prince wasn't so impressed by the jester and so when he talked to the jester's brother, who was his friend also, he asked 'what's wrong with your brother?'"

"Why did he ask that?" Marie interrupted again.

"Because the jester acted really weird in front of the Prince," Albus said wisely. "Every time he saw the Prince he would drop whatever he was holding and he couldn't put a complete sentence together. Then again, the Prince had this strange idea that the jester hated him, despite the fact it was obvious the jester was so in love he found it hard to function." Marie looked a little lost but she nodded along with the story all the same. She lay back against her pillow (purple Pride of Portree sheets because like she was going to get any other team around this house) and blinked up at Albus.

"What happened next? Did they fall in love?" She looked worried all of a sudden. "They do fall in love, don't they, Uncle Al?"

"Of course they do, this is a fairytale after all," Al assured her. "Anyway, things continued like that. The jester remained in love and stupid with it, the Prince was bewildered by everything about the jester and the jester's brother wondered if it was too late to get another sibling." Marie giggled and then yawned. "But then something happened." He let his voice drop a little so he was almost whispering.

Marie's eyes widened. "What happened?" she whispered because if there was one thing about Marie, is that she was always willing to play along.

"The jester saved the Prince's life," Al said simply and Marie gasped. "There was a... lethifold roaming the forest and it went for the Prince when he was out for a walk. The jester was nearby because he was a stalker and managed a Patronus Charm to save the Prince. And then he yelled at the Prince for not looking where he was going in unfamiliar territory."

"That wasn't very nice," Marie said, unsure.

"No, but it's like the time your daddy yelled at you when you borrowed his broomstick and flew over the house." Marie looked shamefaced and ducked back into her bed, her shoulders climbing until she was hunched over. "So the jester yelled at the Prince while making sure he wasn't wounded at the same time. The Prince, having always been treated with careful consideration by everyone else, either because they were overprotective or because they were scared of what he might do, found the jester's behaviour confusing. So the next day he found the jester and started up a conversation. And they kept on talking."

"And then they fell in love," Marie said, her voice quieter than it had been earlier. She had relaxed now after being reminded of her past misbehaviour and her eyes were at half-mast.

Albus considered the actual real life story. It wasn't quite as simple as that, since there were false relationships, drunken sex and surprise proposals to get through, but Marie was five and she did look like she was about to fall asleep. "Yes, they fell in love. And eventually got married and had a little Princess of their own." He bopped her nose and she smiled dreamily up at him. She looked a little like his Aunt Luna when she did that.

"I liked that story," Marie said sweetly and between one breath and the next, she was asleep. Albus brushed a kiss over her hair and got up from her bed.

He turned to the door and froze.

"Albus," James said calmly. He was leaning against the door jamb with his arms folded, looking like he was considering whether he actually needed a brother. Scorpius was next to him, his eyebrows merging into his hairline in his surprise. "You're going to regret this."

While Albus was a Slytherin, the Sorting Hat had almost put him in Gryffindor for a reason. He stood up tall and shrugged. "No, I won't."


End file.
